William F. Bancroft Biography This biography appears on pages 846-847 in "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here Inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm WILLIAM F. BANCROFT, postmaster at Wessington Springs and editor and publisher of the True Republican, was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on the 21st of October, 1868, being a son of Charles L. and Louise P. Bancroft, who removed to the territory of Dakota and located in Yankton when he was a child of but two years. The subject is the youngest of the two children, his sister, Nellie, being the wife of Charles N. Wright, a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. William F. Bancroft secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of the city of Yankton and supplemented the same by a course of study in Yankton College. After leaving college he worked at the printing trade in Yankton, going from there to Vermillion where he remained for two years devoting his attention principally to working at his trade. In February 1893, he came to Wessington Springs and two years later purchased the True Republican of which he has since been the editor and publisher, making the paper an able exponent of local interests and a power in the field of politics in this section of the state, the policy of the paper in a political way being uncompromisingly Republican which fact indicates the political proclivities of the owner, who has been an active worker in the party cause during the years of his residence in the county. On the 10th of September. 1898, under the administration of President McKinley, Mr. Bancroft was appointed postmaster of Wessington Springs, and is still incumbent of this position. While a resident of Clay county our subject served as deputy clerk of the courts, and he has held various local offices in connection with the municipal government of his home town, being at present the city clerk. Fraternally, he is identified with Frontier Lodge, No. 87, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with Wessington Springs Lodge, No. 81, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; while he has been specially prominent in the Modern Woodmen of America, being a member of Wessington Springs Camp, No. 2962. He served as state clerk of the order for two years, was delegate to the head camp in 1899, and from February 13, 1901, to May 6, 1903, he was state advisor, being then elected to the important office of state consul, of which he is incumbent at the time of this writing. On the 3d of July, 1894, Mr. Bancroft was united in marriage to Miss Maud S. Spears, daughter of J. M. Spears, a well-known resident of Wessington Springs, and of this union have been born four children, all of whom remain at the parental home, namely: Merrill, Lowell, Darrell and Melba.